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The considerably modified design of the planned Overton Apartments high-rise in the Pearl District was OK’d by the Portland Design Commission on Thursday.

Commissioners voted 4-1 for approval, but on the conditions that a glass canopy be extended lengthwise over the Northwest Overton Street building entrance and a planter be added on the Northwest 12th Avenue side.

Unico Properties‘ 26-story Overton Apartments, at 1301 N.W. 12th Ave., will have 285 units and a small, ground-floor retail space. The company declined to disclose the total project cost.

Thursday’s hearing was the third time commissioners offered feedback on ZGF Architects‘ design. When staffers with the firm first sought design approval in February, commissioners gave a sharp critique. The aesthetics of a planned pedestrian plaza drew concerns.

Commissioners last month responded much more favorably to a significantly revised design during a check-in hearing. ZGF Architects scrapped plans for metal panels in gradation of reddish hues on one corner of the building facade in favor of shiny, stainless steel shingles. The building base was also modified, in response to commissioners’ complaints that it lacked cohesiveness with the tower.

On Thursday, ZGF Architects principal John Chau told commissioners that the design had shifted little since. The diagonally-oriented tower will sit atop the base with rectangular recesses for building entrances and protected plaza space.

Commissioners expressed lingering reservations about these ground-floor entrances.

“It’s not there yet,” commissioner Tad Savinar said. “These entries and these canopies – there’s something that’s troubling about them. It feels like an entry to a medical building instead of an entry to this majestic plaza.”

Commissioner Ben Kaiser, who voted against design approval, said he still wasn’t sold on the connection between the tower and the base. The base should celebrate the twist of the tower, he said.

“It’s not again acknowledging in the entryway what’s happening above and I think that’s a missed opportunity,” Kaiser said.

Ground is scheduled to broken this summer. Andersen Construction is the contractor.